BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM WED PWP TREE STORY I FEEL MY ARTICLE WAS TOO HASTY : HERE IS WHY

Yesterday, Dec 7, I wrote a PWP article questioning the City of Ypsilanti's decision making process when it comes to selecting trees in city neighborhoods that need to be cut down. Actually, this was the second article I have written on a topic that many Ypsilanti residents are concerned about. There are residents that feel that there is a possibility that healthy trees may have been taken down, or so it seems to them. Obviously, these residents are most likely not tree experts. I am certainly not a tree expert myself.

Last month I decided to contact the City of Ypsilanti in an attempt to find out how the decision process works as far as cutting down trees in city neighborhoods. I never received a response. When a person does not receive a response, one is left to speculate.

But here is the point of this article. In my Dec 7 article, I wrote that an anonymous source in the neighborhood told me that he had seen, a year ago or so, "young" folks walking around with clipboards notating trees. He asked if they had cards. They didn't. The source seemed a bit skeptical in regard to their rotten tree spotting training. I reported the sources impression in my Dec 7 article, but I shouldn't have. It would have been much more responsible for me to have checked out the story thoroughly before writing the piece. I apologize for that.

Here is what I have just learned from a City official. A tree survey was conducted a few years ago. College students were used to inventory the trees in the city. The information is currently available on the map on the city website. I feel quite certain these are the people that my source saw and spoke to. If I had done some more research I would learned this myself. Yes, my article was written too hastily. I'll take the blame for that. I'm assuming that these college students received proper training in regard to selecting trees that need to be taken down.

My December 7 PWP tree article greatly offended some people, so I felt the need to clarify the facts and acknowledge the information I just received.

Still, I would like to emphasis that in early November I did reach out to the City with questions regarding tree cutting and did not receive a response.

Jeff Brown
Editor/Publisher
Purple Walrus Press.